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Nagl and Roczen heads home to Germany

7 years ago

The FIM Motocross World Championship heads to Teutschenthal, Germany, this weekend, but home heroes Max Nagl and Ken Roczen have experienced mixed fortunes lately. The French Grand Prix sent Nagl out with a broken left collarbone while Roczen has been struggling with the track and missed the podium. Their home GP may be their chance for revenge.

It will surely be a hard task for Nagl, breaking his left collarbone in France during qualifying; at the moment the works KTM rider has not yet decided about his participation to the event. No points in France dropped the previous runner up down to fourth in the standings, behind leader Antonio Cairoli, Clement Desalle and David Philippaerts.

In the MX2 class instead Roczen hopes in taking his first win of 2010 at the venue where last year the German became the youngest GP winner ever. Roczen is currently second in the Championship behind Marvin Musquin as Steven Frossard completes the top three.

With Jordi Tixier having won all rounds of the EMX 125 series so far, runner up Pascal Rauchenecker from Austria still chases his first win of the year. Yohan Lafont completes the top three in the series.

MX1

A fall in Saturday’s qualifying race at the French Grand Prix left Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX1’s Nagl with a broken left collarbone, which was successfully operated in the following days. The injury damaged also Nagl’s Championship classification as he dropped down from second to fourth in the series. Nagl will take a late decision whether to race his home GP or not but the determined German will not give it up easily.

Nagl’s team mate Cairoli instead continues to lead the MX1 series since round two in Mantova. The Italian was second overall in France with as many points as overall winner Philippaerts and has showed impressive form so far. With half of his first Championship on the KTM 350 SX-F being run, Cairoli has unveiled like the man to beat in this hard fought 2010.
Rockstar Teka Suzuki World MX1’s Desalle is now second in the Championship courtesy of a third overall finish in France. The Belgian, who also missed one round due to a dislocated shoulder, has a 68 point gap from Cairoli but he has never been on the podium in Germany – where Cairoli took victory in 2009.

Following Desalle from third place is Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross’ Philippaerts, someone having a love affair with Teutschenthal. Philippaerts took his maiden MX1 win in Teutschenthal in 2007, then narrowly missed out on a podium finish in both 2008 and 2009, ending level in points with the third placed rider. After taking his first GP of 2010 in France, David is pumped for this weekend and will try to close the seven point gap from Desalle.

Other Rockstar Teka Suzuki World MX1 man Ramon is fifth behind Nagl while De Dycker rounds off the top six ahead of Boog, Leok, Guarneri and Bobryshev.

Anticipating Sunday’s football World Cup match New Zealand vs Italy, New Zealander Coppins will try and chase Cairoli for victory as Coppins still seeks Aprilia’s maiden triumph in a Motocross GP. Having won both heats at Teutschenthal in 2008, Coppins will exploit his experience on the German track to steer his twin cylinder Aprilia to a top three finish.

Coppins’ team mate Priem, who injured himself in Bulgaria, will finally make his comeback to racing this weekend.

Making his debut in a Grand Prix, Australia’s Ferris will be onboard the Honda Racing MX machine at Teutschenthal this weekend.

MX2

Being struck by bad luck in this first half of the season, Teka Suzuki Europe World MX2’s Roczen is looking for revenge as he challenges series leader Musquin from second place. The 16 year old German took his maiden win at Teutschenthal last year – his maiden World Championship season – to become the youngest GP winner ever with 15 years and 53 days. This year instead he needs to cut the 71 point gap from Musquin and keep his Championship hopes alive with still eight rounds to go including Teutschenthal.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2’s Musquin has impressed at his first season as defending Champion. The French has won an impressive amount of moto’s and GP’s, leaving his rivals with nothing to win except for the Dutch Grand Prix where he had a bad weekend and finished off the podium. Heading into Teutschenthal, Musquin has a total of six GP wins and 11 moto wins.

Third in the Championship is Frossard of Kawasaki CLS. The hard pack specialist from France took his maiden podium appearance in Teutschenthal in 2008 but has not a GP win to his name yet. Taking a second overall in Germany last year, the course seems to be one of Frossard’s favourites and it comes at the right moment for the French, defending his position from a very close Herlings.

The latter is just two points away from Frossard due to crashes in the last couple of rounds. The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing MX2 youngster, who has already won his home GP in Valkenswaard despite this being his maiden season in the class, will see Teutschenthal for the first time but has already proved that he can quickly adapt to courses he does not know.

Herlings’ team mate Simpson completes the top five from Osborne, who has taken back to back podiums since his home GP in Glen Helen.